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Moscow warns of retaliation over NATO military buildup near Russian-Belarusian borders

Maria Zakharova deemed the increased military activity of NATO "provocative in nature," adding that it "may completely ruin the architecture of European security"

MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. NATO’s military buildup near the borders of the Union State of Russia and Belarus is a destabilizing factor and Moscow will take appropriate action in response, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing.

"The increased military activity of NATO and its allies near the borders of Russia and its Union State with Belarus is provocative in nature and may completely ruin the architecture of European security, and, certainly, such steps will not be left without an appropriate response from Russia," the diplomat said.

Commenting on a recent remark by a senior Polish official who said that German troops would be welcome in his country, Zakharova dismissed this rhetoric as "yet another anti-Russian element of the global Russophobic policy course being pursued by NATO countries."

According to Zakharova, around 10,000 US troops have already been deployed to Poland where a multinational tactical group of NATO forces including US, British, Croatian and Romanian service members is already stationed.

"Evidently, the calls for deploying additional foreign troops on Polish soil, something for which there would be no need if these countries were peace-oriented, should be viewed as the desire to raise tensions in Europe and extend the utter collapse of common European security," she emphasized.